


Shopping for Disaster

by Engineer104



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Female Friendship, Gen, Kidnapping, i guess??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 10:19:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13164879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: Allura just wanted something sparkly, and Pidge just wanted to get her ears pierced. And they will, after a mishap involving a kid, a Druid, and a Galra ship.





	Shopping for Disaster

**Author's Note:**

> _Has this been done yet?_
> 
> Based on a random headcanon of mine that Pidge doesn't have her ears pierced and was looking forward to having them done in her teens
> 
> Enjoy!!

Allura lured Pidge into an impromptu visit to the space mall with the promise of a new video game, but so far she had yet to see that pan out. Instead Allura linked their arms together – quite _literally_ bonding them – and towed her past every shop, peeking into windows for ‘something sparkly’.

“With what money?” Pidge grumbled when they paused outside an expensive-looking jewelry store…though she supposed resources scarce on Earth were not necessarily scarce on other planets.

“With _this_ money.” Allura whipped out a wad of cash from her fanny pack – fashionable on Altea ten thousand years ago, apparently – and flashed them at Pidge. But after a tic she reconsidered, glancing furtively around at other shoppers lest they mug her right out in the open, and stuffed the cash back into its hiding place.

Pidge narrowed her eyes at the hidden money. “Do you really think Altean cash is still in circulation?” she said skeptically.

Allura frowned. “No, I suppose not,” she admitted, “but I’m sure there will be a money changer around here. Or a bank that will honor universal exchange rates…”

Pidge raised an eyebrow and didn’t point out that Altean currency would’ve stagnated and become valueless _ten thousand years ago_.

“All right, tell me _this_ , Pidge,” Allura said with a sideways glance at her. “What is something you’ve always wanted but never had the chance to get?”

Pidge snorted. “Can’t you ask something a little _easier_ on our first date, Princess?”

“First—oh, a joke!” Allura laughed pleasantly. She dragged Pidge past the fountain where she’d gone diving for coins with Lance last time and towards the food court where Hunk had so briefly become an indentured servant. “We’ve known each other for a while now,” Allura pointed out as they walked, “and we’ve fought alongside each other. Also, it needn’t be a loaded question; in fact, I can tell you right now I’m quite hungry and would love to try _those_.” She pointed to an item – Pidge suspected at random – pictured on the menu above Vrepit Sal’s.

“I’m not hungry,” Pidge told her.

Allura rolled her eyes. “Please humor me, Pidge,” she said. “I would like to treat you since you agreed to come.”

“You bribed me and have yet to deliver,” she pointed out. She unlinked their arms and crossed hers.

Allura considered her, frowning thoughtfully and tapping her chin. Her fingers wandered to her ears and tugged on her dangling pink earrings, and then she brightened, smiling before Pidge could become uncomfortable with the close scrutiny. “Do you like…jewelry? I’ve never seen you wear any.”

“It’s a little impractical for battle,” Pidge quipped. “And…I don’t have any out here, but I had some at home.” She remembered a few necklaces, some bracelets, mostly cheap painted plastic and nickel stuff from the stores that catered to preteen girls, along with a few pieces of gold that her mother stored in the safety deposit box at the bank. But other than that… “I’ve always wanted earrings.”

“Oh?” Allura clasped her hands together, beaming. “Your earrings aren’t pierced then?”

Pidge pinched an earlobe between her thumb and forefinger, tugging lightly. “No, my mother told me I could get them when I turned sixteen…which I probably am by now.” She frowned; it was still so strange to think she could’ve passed her sixteenth birthday and not even known it.

“Yes, that’s _perfect_ , then!” Allura said. She grabbed Pidge’s elbow and turned them around, back towards the jewelry store they spotted earlier, but this time she went a little less reluctantly, even enthusiastically, a smile tugging on the corners of her mouth.

At least until a child with scaly green skin and a ridged boney structure ringing the top of their head skittered across their path, forcing them to a stop. “Keith!” they said when they caught sight of Allura. “Can I get an autograph?”

Allura froze, and Pidge watched the odd facial gymnastics of her expressions as she went from a reflexive scowl to something more pleasant but still…displeased. She bit her lip to keep from snickering as Allura cleared her throat and said, “I’m sorry, but my friend and I are in a hurry, so—”

“Aw, come on, _Keith_ ,” Pidge said, elbowing Allura in the side. “Channel your inner Lance and give the kid an autograph.”

“And who the quiznak would I even _sign_?” Allura hissed at her.

Pidge covered her mouth to hide her amused grin. “So…Keith will definitely sign something for you,” she told the kid. “Do you have a paper or something or?”

“Yes!” the reptilian kid said with a wide grin. “My mother has something, so I can show you?” They pointed behind them, towards the exit that led to the shuttle parking lot.

Allura exchanged a glance with Pidge, who shrugged and said, “It would be an interesting story to tell everyone when we get back to the Castle.”

Allura rolled her eyes but seemed to agree, for she let the kid take her by the hand and lead her away, Pidge following a few paces behind.

Outside the mall the night sky with few stars – _light pollution_ – greeted them, nighttime traffic flying overhead and hovering nearby as late shoppers left and arrived. The kid led them past the automatic doors, across the hover vehicle parking lot and towards the shuttle parking further away.

“You came all that way _without_ your mother?” Allura wondered, glancing over her shoulder at Pidge.

“She trusts me,” the kid said gleefully. They then waved at a shadowed figure standing out of the light.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Pidge said, right as a shock travelled up her spine, paralyzing her limbs and leaving her mouth gaping with a cutoff scream.

“Pidge!” Allura exclaimed, withdrawing her grip from the child’s, right as a helmeted figure struck her with a stunner.

Pidge collapsed, curling in on herself while her skin still tingled with static. The scent of burning hair made her nose twitch, and she groaned, trying to move limbs that wouldn’t obey her.

Distantly she saw Allura fall, and past her another tall helmeted figure passed the reptilian child a few GAC. “Thanks, kid,” they said.

The child turned and sprinted away without a second glance.

“W-what a-an _asshole_ ,” Pidge muttered.

She blacked out right as someone picked her up off the ground.

* * *

Allura awoke in the dark, the space quiet except for a distant humming…the humming of a huge spaceship’s engine, she quickly realized. She rolled onto her back and sat up, holding a hand to her aching head, though that wasn’t her only physical discomfort since she’d been asleep on the floor for longer than she could guess.

Allura felt along the floor, crawling until her hands collided with a wall. She stood slowly, wary that the ceiling could be low, but when her head didn’t brush it she relaxed and leaned against the wall, until she remembered what happened before she fell unconscious:

The Colotic boy holding her hand and leading her and Pidge into a trap.

_“At least shapeshift into something less recognizable,”_ Coran had suggested when he’d been unable to dissuade her from this diversion.

_“Why?”_ Allura had retorted without looking towards him, to busy searching her closet for something suitable to wear. _“The Coalition is as strong as ever, and our enemies are far weaker now.”_

_“Still, I would feel better if—”_

Allura pulled out a pair of white trousers that she hadn’t worn in a while, and then turned to smile at Coran. _“You worry too much,”_ she’d told him. _“I’ll be fine! And I won’t be alone.”_

Except now she was, and she couldn’t even begin to guess where she could find Pidge and how to go about freeing her – along with herself.

Allura slid along the wall, her fingers questing for a crack or an imperfection that could indicate a door or even a vent. Finally, they touched on nearly undetectable gap in the corner between two walls, so thin even her fingernails wouldn’t fit into it.

With a growl, Allura sat on the floor, crossing her legs. Perhaps she could reach out and contact the Blue Lion with her mind, attract her to rescue them like the Red Lion went to Keith. She closed her eyes – though it was already plenty dark – and rested her hands on her ankles, regulating her breathing so she took steady breaths of the stale, recycled air circulating the ship.

_In._ She inhaled the way her combat teachers taught her, long ago, filling her lungs to bursting.

_Out._ She exhaled slowly through her nose, emptying her lungs as much as she could in a single huff.

Her thoughts calmed, occupied by the exercise. _Blue?_ she thought, cautiously. She could feel all the Lions – the ship carrying her, and hopefully Pidge as well, couldn’t be too distant from the Castle yet – but even her bond to the Blue Lion seemed faint.

Something hissed, interrupting her effort to meditate, and Allura’s eyes shot open as violet light flooded the room, right as a long shadow fell across her.

Allura tilted her head back, eyes narrowing as she took in the tall Druid standing before her. She stood, slowly and composed despite the beating of her heart. _Take control of the situation,_ she advised herself. _You need to find out where they’re keeping Pidge._

So she demanded, “Where’s my friend?”

“The Green Paladin is being held elsewhere on the ship,” the Druid, to her surprise, responded immediately.

“And I trust you are being hospitable to her?” Allura said, tone heavy with sarcasm. “At least more hospitable to her than you are to _me_?”

The Druid stared at her, and because Allura couldn’t see their eyes, their gaze unnerved her, seemed to penetrate her in an unfamiliar, _uncomfortably_ invasive way.

It felt like an interrogation, though they had yet to ask any questions.

“We have no reason to be inhospitable yet, Princess Allura,” said the Druid.

Allura bit her lip. Of _course_ they knew who _she_ was, especially if they’d already discovered Pidge’s identity. “And what can I do for you to keep it that way?” she wondered.

“Answer our questions as they come,” they said, “and we need not torture you or the other Paladin.”

She raised an eyebrow at them, resting her hands on her hips and feigning a calm she did not feel in her confinement. “The other Paladins will notice we’re missing,” she said. “Actually, I’m sure they already have.”

“Certainly,” agreed the Druid, “but while you and the Green one are here, they will be unable to form Voltron.”

“The Lions are quite—”

“I have no doubt the Lions are formidable individually,” the Druid interrupted, “but the High Priestess hypothesizes that the current generation of Paladins has yet to reach their full potential, which is why I am quite confident that a rescue will be difficult for them to mount while missing _two_ Paladins.”

Allura dropped her hands, clenching them into fists as she frowned. Oh, so they knew about the _switch_ too? But Lance—oh, but _Keith_ was still with the Blade. Allura scowled, but she hadn’t really thought she could rely on _rescue_ anyway. No, she and Pidge were on their own, prisoners aboard a Galra vessel housing a Druid.

“Fine,” she said, feigning a willingness to cooperate. “What is it you wish to know?”

The Druid said, “We will begin our interrogation with the Green Paladin. We suspect she will break quicker, and you are too valuable a prisoner to risk without cause. Be at peace, Princess Allura, for now.”

Allura reached into her trouser pocket right as the Druid turned their back, gratified that whoever must’ve searched her upon capture had dismissed her nail file as an unlikely weapon. Then, while the door to her cell slid shut behind the Druid, she wedged the tip into the shrinking gap and smirked when it held.

“This should be fun,” she said when no one outside the cell took notice after several doboshes, but the sentiment died as soon as the Druid’s final words hit her, and she realized she’d have to act quickly if she wanted to free Pidge.

Allura swept her sweaty hair up into a bun, tying it with a bit of string from her pocket. She brushed a few loose strands out of her face and tucked them behind her ear, then after another deep, composing breath, she gripped the nail file wedged between the door and the wall, pushed it a little further in, and _tugged_.

With a grunt, the gap in the doorway widened enough that Allura could grip the edge with her hands. She pulled with all her strength, and though the door resisted, she managed to produce a gap wide enough to fit her body through.

A narrow hallway lined with cells and illuminated with violet and red light greeted her, along with a Galra soldier that flinched into attention as soon as he caught sight of her. He raised his blaster to shoot, but Allura fell on him quickly, grabbing the barrel of the blaster and swinging it and him around until his back collided with the wall.

The soldier fell, dropping the blaster, but before he could get to his feet, Allura kicked his head, knocking his helmet clean off. It fell with a too loud clang, rolling almost halfway down the hall without stopping. He opened his mouth to shout for help, but then she slammed the butt of the rifle against his head.

Finally he slumped, lying prone and unconscious on the floor.

Heart pounding with exertion, Allura stripped him of his armor and equipment as quickly as she could before cramming his body into her cell. She then dressed in it, hooking the blaster at her belt alongside a communication device that buzzed with static, a voice emitting from it.

“Sergeant Hart, report!” they said. “What was that sound coming from the holding cells?”

Allura unhooked the com from the belt and brought it her lips. She cautiously pressed a button at random and, pitching her voice a little deeper, said, “All clear, sir! Just dropped my helmet!”

A beat, then:  “All right. Be more careful, Sergeant.”

Allura exhaled in relief and returned the com to her belt. She shifted, growing taller and wider, and when she peeked at her hands her skin was purple. Satisfied with her handiwork, she walked down the hall, only stopping to bend and pick up the dropped helmet, and proceeded away from the holding cells.

Unsure how to go about finding Pidge, Allura approached the first soldier she saw and smiled at him. “Hello! I’m new aboard this vessel, and I was wondering if you might direct me to the location of my next shift?”

The soldier frowned at her, the tip of a fang peeking out from between his lips. “Where is your next shift…Sergeant?” he asked, eyes drifting down to peek at a badge on her armor’s breastplate.

Allura imitated his frown and said, “I’m to guard the prisoner picked up from the swap moon.”

The soldier eyed her suspiciously while sweat beaded down Allura’s forehead. “You just came from that direction,” he told her.

“No, no, not _that_ one.” She nodded her head back towards the hallway of holding cells. “The _other_ one.”

“Oh, _that_ one.” The soldier nodded in understanding and said, “She was taken to the interrogation chamber.” He grimaced. “She’s a Druid prisoner now and under their guard. Nasty buggers.” He patted Allura’s shoulder consolingly. “You’ll get used to working under them…eventually.”

“Yes, so…?” Allura prompted, hopeful that, despite the ominousness, his thawing towards her would help her find Pidge.

“Oh, are you _sure_ that’s where your next shift it?” he asked. “Because no one except their _personal_ assistants work directly with them, and you have to be rising in the ranks for—”

Growing impatient and not a little alarmed, Allura grabbed the soldier by the arm and pulled him close enough to her that she could look directly into his eye. “Just tell me where the interrogation chamber is,” she said. “If you don’t, I know a good place to stash your body.”

The soldier swallowed and told her, “Three levels down and forward. Follow the signs towards the lab.”

“Thank you.” Allura pushed him away from her and flashed him a grateful smile as she passed, all too aware of him grabbing his own communication device and muttering frantically into it. So she walked quickly, impatiently tapping her foot as the elevator descended three levels.

While she waited, she studied the emergency guide etched into the elevator wall, memorizing the route to the ship’s escape pods…which were at the _rear_ of the ship. Allura frowned and patted the rifle at her hip, hoping she could find a weapon with which she was more comfortable while she and Pidge made their undoubtedly frantic escape.

When the elevator doors slid open, soldiers lined the hall beyond, lying in wait.

“Quiznak,” she muttered, unhooking the blaster from her belt and hefting it – with it point the _right_ way. She stepped out of the elevator, and after dodging a whole volley of blasts wished for nothing more than her Paladin armor and the shield she could activate at her wrist.

Allura didn’t bother aiming as she shot at her assailants. She shot at random, in a way that would make Hunk proud while horrifying Lance, and alternated between firing and bludgeoning with the rifle, using the weapon in a way it was never meant to be used. Her powerful swings felled soldiers in only a few blows, and the narrow hallway worked to her advantage as she fought her way through while the armor – with or without shield – did its job and deflected most of the shots.

It was built to protect especially from _friendly_ fire, after all.

Allura swung one soldier by the arm at a few others and mused about the poor quality of training within the Empire. They wouldn’t even hold a candle to the old Galra troops Zarkon led ten thousand years ago!

By the time she reached the end of the hall, encountering the first sign that read ‘LABORATORY’ in simplified Galra script, she’d left a trail of unconscious and groaning bodies in her wake, her lungs screaming for air while her heart tried to burst free of her chest. But she kept moving forward, towards Pidge and the Druid, despite knowing that she would meet even more resistance than this now that the ship was on high alert for the escaped prisoner.

* * *

Pidge hummed the last song she heard on the radio on Earth softly to herself while she waited to be tortured, though it wasn’t so much a coping mechanism as it was a way to keep herself busy – and to annoy the guard left in the room with her, and if there was anything she’d learned from Lance since meeting him, it was to never underestimate the power of irritation.

Unfortunately, the Galra soldiers that worked directly with the Druids seemed to be made of sterner stuff than the rank and file. This one hadn’t even glanced in Pidge’s direction since he’d strapped her to the table.

Pidge experimentally wiggled her hands and ankles, but of course the restraints held as tightly as they had last time she checked. Even the one across her chest barely gave her enough room to breathe.

She huffed, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face in frustration. She wiggled her toes – they wanted her entirely barefoot – and tapped her fingers, growing _antsy_ while she waited, accompanied by the guilt at her role in leading Allura into a trap.

“So…” she said aloud to the guard in the opposite corner. “What song would you like me to hum next? That one was ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’, by the way. Maybe I should _sing_ the next one instead though?” She paused, giving him a chance to respond, but when he didn’t she continued, “I think I’ll sing ‘Space Oddity’ this time. It _does_ kind of remind me of my dad, and if I start crying that’ll probably make your job easier, right?” Still no reaction.

Pidge rolled her eyes and started singing, “ _Ground control to Major Tom_ —”

The door slid open, interrupting her, and she struggled to pick her head up to see who it was, only for the shot of a blaster to ring out, hitting the guard in the corner and _finally_ getting a peep out of him as he collapsed, groaning in pain.

“Lance?” she said, confused but hopeful. “There’s _no way_ —”

“Pidge?” A Galra soldier hovered over her, and Pidge recoiled, until she recognized the voice as Allura’s. “Are you all right?”

“Oh, you know,” Pidge said, waving her fingers as Allura worked on unclipping the restraints keeping her body and limbs in place, “I’m just taking a nap.”

“Good,” Allura said, either completely missing Pidge’s sarcasm or accepting that it meant she was all right.

Which she was, now that Allura was there.

Pidge sat up as soon as the restraints recoiled, rubbing the faint bruising already on her wrists. “How’d you get free?” she asked Allura.

“I can explain that later,” she said, taking her arm and helping her down from the table. “Right now we have another problem.”

“You mean _other_ than escaping the ship?”

“Yes,” Allura admitted. “Unfortunately, I was a bit _sloppy_ with my own escape.”

Pidge frowned. “Oh, great,” she said. “Does this mean half the soldiers on the ship will be waiting for us just outside the lab?”

“Oh, almost definitely.”

Pidge slumped and wished for her bayard, and her armor, and her Lion, and all the special features that came with them. “And even if we managed to get to an escape pod, we’d still have to worry about a tail, unless…” She trailed off, an idea taking hold, and smirked at Allura. “I can’t get you something sparkly, but flashy I might be able to do.”

* * *

Allura regretfully discarded the Galra armor right before – after some persuasion from Pidge – shrinking smaller than her true size, small enough that she and Pidge were at eye level.

“How does it feel to be as short as I am?” Pidge wondered.

Allura glanced down at the vent in the wall, the grate blocking it already torn off and set aside. “I can’t say I’m fond of it,” she admitted.

“Yeah, well, you get used to it.” Pidge held the communication device belonging to Sergeant Hart in one hand, toggling through the settings for…something. But when a crystal at the top projected a map – the layout of the ship – she grinned triumphantly.

(Allura stifled a groan; she might’ve been able to find Pidge so much more _easily_ if she’d known that was there.)

“All right, _here_ is the engine,” Pidge said, zooming in at a point close to the back of the ship. “This puts us pretty close to the escape pods, at least, so that’s one less thing we have to worry about. But”—she pointed to a set of rooms opposite the escape pods, on the other side of the engines—“these are the barracks, so reinforcements will come from there.”

“And how do we overload the engines _and_ give ourselves enough time to escape?”

Pidge frowned. “I think…we’ll have to go to the bridge for that.” Now the projection displayed a room in the top-center of the ship. “We’ll have to split up; I’ll go to the bridge and, from there, kill the security systems on the way to the engines. You’ll head to the engines – you’ll have to fight off anyone in your path, but I’ll do my best to slow them down from the bridge – and there _should_ be a control room there, where you can directly and more efficiently destroy the internal workings.” She smiled. “It should be a lot like the Castle’s, especially according to these design specs.” She pulled those up on the display, but before Allura could attempt to interpret them, Pidge waved them away and pocketed the communication device. “Then we meet at the escape pods. The ship won’t blow, exactly, but it’ll be so badly damaged that they can only send fighters after us…unless I seal the hangar doors from the bridge.” Pidge shrugged, looking far too pleased with herself about this.

Allura raised her eyebrow. “And how will I get to the engines without you to lead me?”

Pidge confiscated another communication device from a nearby soldier they’d already disarmed and, after changing a few settings, handed it to Allura. “The active channel on there is also active on mine.” She patted her pocket. “I’ll direct you where to go once we split up.”

Allura met Pidge’s eyes, and her confidence in their hastily thought up plan gave _her_ confidence as well, so she nodded. “Then we’ll do it your way,” she said.

“All right, let’s go.” Pidge waved her towards the grate, but she entered first, crawling on hands and knees until her feet – still bare – disappeared inside.

Allura followed after taking a bracing breath – she’d never much cared for small confined spaces, and since spending ten thousand years inside a cryopod that discomfort hadn’t been soothed. She was wary of every sound they made – their elbows knocking against the walls of the vents, their breathing echoing, any peep that might escape their lips – but no grate opened, no one challenged them inside. In fact, Pidge seemed almost _comfortable_ , like she was the queen of this windy maze of a castle.

“Oh, we’re here,” Pidge whispered after stopping suddenly, when Allura almost tripped over her feet. She felt along the floor, then moved forward a little. “I need you to open it up.”

“Right.” Allura crawled a little more until her fingers slipped through the gaps in a grate. She gripped tightly, wiggling to check what leeway she had, before pushing against it as hard as she could.

Fractures spread in the already corroded metal, and Allura added a foot for leverage. The grate then broke off, slipping from her grip and falling to the floor of the bridge below.

Allura and Pidge peered down at a small group of soldiers a short distance below, all of whom glanced up when a mostly intact metal grate fell. Allura smiled and Pidge waved, right before telling Allura to keep going straight and that they would be in contact.

She slid from the hole and fell onto a soldier, a blaster confiscated from another one in her hands as she fired at them.

Allura watched and angled her own blaster down, taking out the soldiers that tried to sneak up on Pidge from behind; and she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she thought her aim actually improved!

Within doboshes the room was vacated of conscious Galra soldiers, and Pidge already set to work locking the bridge’s doors. She then looked up at Allura and said, “I’ve got this! Keep going to the engine.”

“All right,” Allura said. She returned her blaster to her belt and turned carefully inside the narrow vent, facing her destination.

\---

The systems aboard this Galra vessel functioned just the same as aboard any other despite the Druid in command, which meant that Pidge could infiltrate it with uncanny ease, and without even her prepared translation program within reach.

“Thank you standardized systems,” Pidge muttered, smirking as she found the security protocols between the bridge and the engine rooms.

First she shut down most of the alarms – the ones that she could access indirectly – and unlocked all the doors in Allura’s path. After dragging an unconscious Galra soldier for the use of his handprint, Pidge locked the fighter hangar doors. Then, the pièce de résistance:

Pidge found the microphone to the ship-wide intercom system and turned it on. “Attention, soldiers! There are two intruders aboard and they have infiltrated the bridge! Everyone not on duty, report to the bridge immediately and take them out with extreme prejudice! Vrepit Sa.” She clicked it off, and though she doubted that what she said was consistent to protocol, she was sure she’d achieved her objective and that _every_ soldier aboard the ship would stay out of her and Allura’s path to escape.

Hopefully.

Pidge pulled the communication device from her belt right as Allura contacted her.

“Pidge, what were you _thinking_?” she demanded. “They’re coming right for you!”

“Yeah, which means their eyes aren’t on you,” Pidge pointed out. Without waiting for Allura’s impending lecture, she found an alternative route away from the bridge, one that would have less resistant traffic, and took it, barely escaping the attention of the first of the soldiers that she’d lured to the bridge. She ducked out of the way of the doorway, hiding in a shadow just beyond an alcove and out of sight of any other soldiers passing by.

“Pretty soon,” she told Allura, keeping her voice low, “they’re going to be too busy looking for us in the wrong place, and then from _there_ they’ll be too busy trying to get in or out.”

“What do you—”

Pidge pressed a button – repurposed while she was in the bridge – on her linked communication device and watched as the doors to the bridge slid shut. “I hacked their security system,” she said. “I control it from my com.”

She lingered only long enough to make sure that the soldiers still filing down the hall were preoccupied with attempting to help their comrades inside escape – and those confined would be frantically trying to get beyond Pidge’s own security measures.

“I’m on my way to the pods now,” Pidge said to Allura. “I’ll see you there.”

* * *

“Yes, I suppose you will,” Allura agreed. When Pidge didn’t respond immediately, she clipped the communication device back onto her belt and continued forward.

Per Pidge’s promise and efforts, the path ahead was mostly clear of soldiers, enough that she’d grown to her preferred size as soon as she’d emerged from the vents. She was still forced to duck around corners to avoid sentries and drones, but thanks to the blaster in her hands and the blade she now had at her belt, she was far from defenseless.

Allura followed the path laid out by the map projected from the com to the engines. Shadows filled the voluminous chamber, the corners and edges so dark they were out of sight, and the cavern was crisscrossed with catwalks leading to different parts of the hardware for the engineers to access.

After consulting the engines’ design specs, Allura selected a catwalk leading to the largest engine, the only one almost constantly operating, though rarely at full power. If she irreparably damaged that one, she and Pidge would have nothing to fear once they escaped; the ship would destroy itself once it gave pursuit, the engine overloading as it tried to achieve full power.

Allura blasted a continuous stream of laser fire at a crucial part, interfering with the engine’s function. Then, satisfied that the damage was substantial and _enough_ , she turned and headed the way she came, running in her hurry to leave the engines behind and making her way to the escape pods.

A hall away, lightning struck Allura, traveling up her spine and making her hair stand on end. When the shock faded, she fell to the ground on hands and knees, hissing at the pain dancing through her nerves. _Not again,_ she thought, eyes wide as she frantically scanned the hallway, searching for her assailant.

_Left_ , she thought. The electricity traveled from her left hand first, so—

Allura raised her blaster and fired it towards her left; the shadows there coalesced, momentarily revealing the lurker who vanished as the shot pierced them.

“I hate Druids,” Allura grumbled, straightening and holding the rifle firmly in both hands, dreading the next blow.

* * *

Allura was late. The path was clear, the escape pod ready for their escape, but Allura was late.

Pidge put the communication device up to her mouth again and said, “Allura?”

This time, she answered immediately. “I’m kind of in the middle of something, Pidge,” she said, breathless and sounding pained.

“Where are you?” Pidge demanded. “And who—” _Where did I screw up…again?_

“Not far from – _quiznak_ – the escape pods.” A shot from a blaster sounded. “It’s a quiznaking _Druid_.”

“I’m on my way.” Pidge clipped the com back onto her belt and sprinted in the direction Allura indicated, towards the engines. She came across her standing stiffly, eyes flitting rapidly from side to side, a blaster in one hand and a sword in the other.

Pidge gripped her own blaster tightly in both hands, warily scanning the hall for the Druid. “Where’d it go?” she asked Allura.

“Quiznak knows,” Allura said.

The Druid appeared just behind Allura, raising their hands in preparation for an attack, but then it spotted Pidge and vanished.

“Back to back,” Allura said once Pidge pointed them – or their absence – out. She turned, putting her back to Pidge’s, and they turned in a slow circle.

“Why don’t we just sprint for the pod?” Pidge suggested, tone quiet.

“And leave that thing _alive_?” Allura said, scandalized.

“Okay, point taken.” Pidge narrowed her eyes, searching, searching… At a rustle in a corner, she raised her blaster and fired a shot, but it was only her own shadow shifting as she and Allura pivoted in place.

The Druid then reappeared in front of Pidge, but this time, before she could fire at them, they said, “Why do you think we would leave _you_ alive?”

“Come on!” Pidge said. “Make your move and stop putting it off!”

Her goading worked, and the Druid raised their hands and attacked, but this time something was different about their attack, light arcing violet rather than white.

At a light pressure from Allura’s elbow pressing into her arm, Pidge spun so that Allura faced the Druid instead, absorbing the attack – the quintessence – and firing it back at them with a frustrated cry.

The quintessence struck hard and fast, faster than the Druid could vanish, right in the center of their hood. They gave an unholy screech, limbs thrashing, and doubled over.

Pidge shook her head, disrupting her horrified fascination, and grabbed Allura’s wrist and towed her to the ready escape pods. She followed stiffly and mutely, her weapons slipping from her grip, climbing into the pod after Pidge without protesting.

Pidge took the pilot’s seat right as the pod ejected from the docking bay. She steered them away at full speed and asked Allura, “Can you keep an eye out for pursuit? I know I covered our bases, but…” She shot a worried glance at her, in time to see her inhale bracingly.

“I’m fine,” Allura reassured her. “At least we know those…Druids can be…killed.” She stared at her hands, shook her head, and switched half the viewscreen to scan the pod’s rear.

Pidge navigated away from the ship, back towards the moon with the space mall. Her heartbeat slowed as they pulled further and further away from the Galra ship, and she relaxed.

“It’s crumbling,” Allura told her. “It won’t be able to chase us.”

“Good,” Pidge said with a smirk. She turned her head and met Allura’s eyes.

Allura smiled back, and laughed. “Now what?”

“Now we return to the mall,” Pidge said, grinning. “You promised I could get my ears pierced, right?”

“Right,” said Allura, “but on one condition.”

Pidge raised an eyebrow at her, taken aback by her serious tone. “What?”

Allura narrowed her eyes at her and said, “Not one word to Coran.”

* * *

Ticketing illegally parked shuttles and pods was Varkon’s least favorite part of his job. There was nothing _fun_ or _exciting_ or _evil-vanquishing_ about leaving little slips of paper taped to the front of a vehicle.

But illegal parking inconvenienced the good shoppers that made the effort to park legally, so the least Varkon could do was inconvenience the rulebreakers.

Still, he never expected the imperial pod landed on the curb just outside the mall’s exit, anymore than he expected the note scrawled in childish Galra script:  an apology, and a request for the craft to be scrapped for parts, along with a signature.

_Pidge and Allura, Paladins of Voltron._

Varkon glanced around furtively before pocketing the note. He couldn’t remember a Paladin from _The Voltron Show_ named Allura, but he appreciated these delinquents’ gesture.

He still wrote the ticket.

**Author's Note:**

> I...kind of lost my steam there at the end (pro tip: don't write when you have a headache), and I'm still learning to write action scenes, but I hope you liked it!! (and please leave a comment if you did)


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